What’s Next for the Dodgers? When I was a youngster enjoying the exploits of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the mid fifties, a CBS television show – The $64,000 Question – was all the rage. At that time whenever we had a puzzling question we would simply say, “That’s the $64,000 question.” It was a great way to get off the hook without having to come up with or find the answer to a question. One $64,000 question for me was, “Why did the Dodgers leave Brooklyn at the height of their success?” At that time I didn’t know anything about the politics involved in the move and as a 16-year old why would I?

What’s next for the Los Angeles Dodgers is indeed a $64,000 question, perhaps inflated to a $64M question in today’s currency. What’s next is certainly anyone’s guess as it is even a bit difficult to fit together the pieces of the puzzle that already been put in place since the Guggenheim Baseball Management Group assumed ownership of the team in March of 2012.

One of the first noticeable differences from the Frank McCourt era with the team was that the new group of owners were not deterred by $64M questions. They had money and were willing to spend it. There was a definite impatience in pursuing their goal of bringing a World Series Championship to Los Angeles and although we might debate if they took the best route in doing so by outspending every team in major league baseball, we cannot question their commitment to the team and the city of Los Angeles.

Guggenheim Baseball Management team of Robert L. Patton, Jr., Stan Kasten, Mark Walter, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Peter Guber and Todd Boehly have made it very obvious that they plan to bring the Dodgers back into the championship game. (Photo credit – Andy Holzman)

A World Series Championship “now” was only part of the plan. Building a consistent competitor to reach for the brass ring year after year became a well articulated development goal. The group is interested in the one – that is a championship – but not interested in one and out.

The plan began to unfold as the “new owners” very quickly started to reclaim some of the international market they had lost under the former ownership. The previous phase of going from first to practically last in international scouting and signing was not only unproductive but almost embarrassing. As a sign of things to come, the ever-exciting Yasiel Puig was signed by the Dodgers out of Cuba on June 23, 2012 while equally exciting 16-year old left-hander Julio Urias was signed out of Mexico two months later on August 23rd.

Bob Engle was brought in as Vice President of International Scouting, the same position he held with with the Seattle Mariners since 2004. The Dodgers continued to build their scouting department and didn’t do everything by stealth. On November 12th they carried out a daylight raid on the Seattle Mariners scouting department. The new crew have specific regions to cover: Pedro Avila (Venezuela), Gene Grimaldi (Europe), Patrick Guerrero (Latin America), Pat Kelly (Pacific Rim), Jamey Storvick (assignment scout Pacific Rim) and Mike Tosar (Cuba and Mexico).

Those appointments certainly signaled something new was in the wind. Speaking at Campo Las Palmas, Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten made his aspirations clear. “We are here because this is where you create future Dodger championship teams. In the past we were the leaders here and in the past year, we have fallen behind here, but that’s going to change.” He also spoke of plans for Campo Las Palmas: “We have to remodel the academy to make it bigger to get more players to help us in the future.”

With a bolstered scouting department and relative success on the field during the 2013 and 2014 seasons, the Dodgers ownership moved into a new phase of development – perhaps Kasten’s Phase 2. Definitely the future was being revealed before our very eyes. On October 14, 2014, Andrew Friedman was hired as President of Baseball Operations which set off a revamping of the Dodgers Front Office. Farhan Zaidi was brought in as the teams’s General Manager and Josh Byrnes became the new Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations, while Gape Kapler assumed the position of Director of Player Development with Billy Gasparino becoming Director of Amateur Scouting. All members of the team came from outside of the Dodgers organization – Friedman from the Tampa Bay Rays, Zaidi from the Oakland Athletics, Byrnes and Gasparino from the San Diego Padres and former major leaguer Kapler from Fox Sports.

New Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and new Dodgers General Manager Farhan Zaidi have assembled what can only be described as a ‘Dream Team’ front office. Now it’s time to see if it works. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka and SportsNetLA.com)

During the Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego from December 7-11, the new management team blitzed the baseball world with bold and decisive moves. Armed with a plan for the future for the Dodgers and their feeder system, some of the moves stunned the Dodger faithful. Gone were catalysts and fan favorites Dee Gordon and Matt Kemp. New comers to the Dodgers 40-man roster included pitchers Mike Bolsinger, Chris Hatcher, Adam Liberatore, Juan Nicasio, Joel Peralta, and Joe Wieland, catchers Austin Barnes and Yasmani Grandal, infielders Enrique Hernandez, Howie Kendrick and Jimmy Rollins and outfielder Chris Heisey.

The trades and free agent signings of pitchers Brandon McCarthy and Brett Anderson revealed something about the thought processes of the Dodgers management team. They are the precursors to future Dodger trades based on:

• A willingness to make bold trades with value for value
• Acquiring players with strong defensive skills, versatility, at or close to MLB level, hard working reputations
• Building depth in anticipation of the unknown injuries or slumps and strength at the AAA level
• Using every team’s roster in making trades. First round pitchers Andrew Heaney(Marlins) and Zack Eflin (Padres) were acquired and traded immediately for Howie Kendrick and Jimmy Rollins
• Acquiring mostly young players or older players with contacts soon to expire while waiting for farm hands to mature

On September it was announced the new Dodgers minor league affiliates at the AA and AAA levels had changed. The Tulsa Drillers are now the Dodgers AA affiliate and the Oklahoma City Dodgers, only 100 miles away, are the parent team’s AAA affiliate. Besides the obvious logistical advantages of having the two teams close to each other, the age old problem of a hitter’s paradise in mile-high Albuquerque has now been solved paving the way for a smoother path as pitching and hitting prospects work their way towards MLB.

Even the Dodgers 2015 Winter Development Camp had a new flavor, a new philosophy. The 2015 camp had 27 invitees, twice the number invited in 2013 and 2014. It also had representatives from all of the levels in the Dodgers minor league system from the rookie league Arizona Dodgers all the way to the AAA Oklahoma City Dodgers. Gape Kapler, Director of Player Development, has a different approach in mind. He doesn’t see the camp as a step in a young player’s progress. He said instead of splitting time on the field and in the classroom, this year’s camp will be overwhelmingly cerebral. “We don’t want them ramping up in the middle of winter to impress physically,” Kapler said. “We want them to be open-minded, nimble of thought and share experiences with a ton of interpersonal back-and-forth and talk shop.”

The minor league coaching staffs were filled in the past few days. It is interesting that a fourth coach was added to complement the manager, hitting coach and pitching coach. The fourth coach is fluent in Spanish. He is there to assist young Latin players acclimatize to life in the United States on and off the field. That has to be a thoughtful move. Also I noticed that pitching coaching Bill Simas, Matt Herges and Scott Radinsky all moved up a level for the 2015 season. Glenn Dishman was moved from the AAA Dodgers to the Class A Great Lakes Loons. The reason would seem to be that pitching coaches are following their players from the 2014 season and using the rapport they have already developed with their young protégés. Dishman can’t follow any of his 2014 pitchers to Los Angeles so he begins again with the Loons.

It isn’t business as usual, as it used to be, with the Dodgers brain trust. They have been labeled a “geek” squad. I know they are strong in the area of analytics, as Don Mattingly calls them, but my take is that they are equally strong in good old fashioned baseball. The trades they have made and the philosophy they are revealing suggests it is not all about analytics.

So what’s next for the Dodgers? We have no inside track, no crystal ball that works and we can only speculate. Since 1988 the Dodgers have done little to bolster their “storied franchise “ reputations but changing that is now on a fast track. The future is rolling out before our very eyes. A plan has been set in motion, a modus operandi revealed. That might make speculating relatively easy or nearly impossible. So – let’s speculate.

1. Looking at the moves made by the Dodgers in the past two months, I expect the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers to field a very good, competitive team vying for the league championship. The management team wants winners at every minor league level establishing a culture of winning.
2. The farm system ranking among the 30 MLB farm systems had improved consistently over the past three
   years. Within two years expect the Dodgers farm system to be a top five system.
3. Andre Ethier will be traded at some point in 2015, especially if his stock rises before the July trade deadline.
4. Another relief pitcher will be acquired before or during the 2015 season.
5. Acquisitions at the trade deadline will not be of the rent- a- player type.
6. By 2018 the Dodgers management team will have the payroll under control. Eating contracts now is simply short term pain for long term gain. In 2018 they will no longer pay a luxury tax.
7. The Dodgers will establish an additional team in Latin America either in the Dominican Summer League or Venezuela League.
8. The Dodgers will be the first team, as circumstances change politically, to develop a baseball academy in Cuba.
9. Cuban phenom infielder Yoan Moncada will be signed by the Dodgers for whatever it takes as all MLB teams have the same International Bonus Pool issues.
10. Winning a World Series will no longer be a dream – soon.